Why I bike

At the extremes, you find righteous liberals who expect the world to bow down as they roll by. At the other side, it’s wannabe white collars touting their latest gear intended to impress their boss. It’s the new golf.

I don’t bike because I like exercising. In fact I hate going to the gym and suck at any kind of sport imaginable. Plus I have a good metabolism so I don’t need to go crazy with physical exercise if I eat well enough.

I don’t bike because it’s cool. If it was cool, more than 1.5% of Vancouver would be doing it.

I don’t bike because it saves the planet. It takes a lot of stacked up assumptions to show that biking significantly reduces greenhouse emissions. First you need to assume a bike displaces a significant source of carbon emissions (i.e. car). Second you need to assume that the car you would have supposedly driven produces a lot of emissions. Third, you’d have to assume that cars have a big part in greenhouse gas creation. None of these points have been proven.

I don’t bike because I hate driving. I fucking love driving and cars, I own two, including a rear-drive, 5-speed stick shift inline-6 model that was clearly built for someone who likes to to burn rubber.

I bike for the same reasons homeless people do: It’s cheap, reliable, convenient transportation. During rush hour, I can clear downtown faster than a car. I don’t have to find and pay for a parking spot. I can fix it easily because I can see the problem. I bike because it saves me money in this expensive, yet strangely bikeable city.